The true alternative

The long-awaited Draghi report is a healthy whiplash in a continent that risks falling back into its usual divisions. The applause is unanimous for the solidity of the analysis and proposals, a little less for the essential conditions to make them possible and for the central message: only with more integration and more Europe can we reverse the trend. «The values ​​of Europe are prosperity, equity, freedom, peace and the EU exists to ensure that Europeans benefit from these fundamental rights. If Europe cannot give all this to its citizens, it means that it has lost its reason to exist. It is an existential question.».

According to the impressive amount of data and analyses in the 400-page Report, the issues of a Europe that is progressively losing ground to the United States and China are clearer. Since 2000, disposable income per capita in the US has grown at a rate almost double that of the EU and European families are paying for this in terms of declining living standards. The main cause is the progressive loss of competitiveness, mainly due to a too low rate of innovation and investment of scale in the technologies of the ongoing industrial revolution. This coupled with the fact that the costs of maintaining sovereignty prevailing national in crucial sectors, from tax to finance, from energy to defense, wastes a huge amount of resources and takes them away from the possibility of investing rapidly and massively in the change of direction needed to avoid collapse. Continuing to delude ourselves that the three conditions of yesterday's success (low-cost energy based on Russian gas, defense costs offloaded onto the US umbrella within the NATO framework and an economy based on export growth and value chains that have relied too much on crucial supplies to China and others) can be restored and not seeing that the entire geopolitical framework, starting with the serious issue of war, has radically changed the scenario. If we continue like this, it's simple: we will become progressively less rich, less independent, less free to choose our destiny, with less social protection and fewer opportunities for the future of our children.
Is it possible to reverse the trend? Yes, of course! Draghi indicates 5 key points: bridging the innovation gap by finding new drivers of growth; combining decarbonisation and competitiveness, lowering energy prices and increasing the circular economy; strengthening security and reducing dependencies; financing the necessary investments, calculated at a sum equal to 5% of European GDP; strengthening common governance and integration. In the second part of the Report he indicates 170 concrete proposals, identifying 10 main sectors of intervention: energy, critical raw materials, digitalisation and advanced technologies, energy-intensive industries, clean technologies, automotive, defence, space, pharmaceutical industry and transport, accompanied by investments in skills and measures to accompany transitions.

There are no more excuses: the analysis is clear and the proposals are simple; if added to the Letta Report on the Internal Market, they trace a robust course that cannot be missed. that share as a whole. In short, either we change or we perish, but together we can do a lot. Will we be able to do it? Some signs come from the mandates entrusted to the individual European commissioners chosen by President von der Leyen. But in the same days Germany decides to close its national borders with 10 countries, suspending one of the pillars of the European Union, free movement, with additional costs for consumers and businesses. This is not good news. In the autumn that comes after the hottest summer ever and begins again with frightening floods, the question is only one: will we have leadership up to the task or will we continue to think that continuing to postpone until tomorrow is still acceptable? 


Luca Jahier
NP October '24